Second Brit family claims that autistic son was “denied” comfort toys on Ryanair flight from Lanzarote

RYANAIR FLIGHT: Staff are said to not have been made aware of Leyton’s situation.
Photo: Shutterstock

ANOTHER British family has claimed that Ryanair did not allow their autistic son to fly with his comfort toys, reported British press.

According to Claire Martin, mother of Leyton Martin, her son scratched a hole into the back of his hand due to overwhelming nervousness after he wasn’t able to travel with his toys and medicine on a flight from Arecife to Manchester.

Ryanair staff are said to not have been made aware of Leyton’s situation as no information was provided to them of his condition or requirements during boarding or check in.

Leyton’s mother claims to have paid £57, around €67, for extra luggage but a staff member denied them entry with the bag as it was not seen to be priority luggage.

Because of this, necessary comfort items were denied the child, causing him complete distress and being part of a factor to self-harm unintentionally.

Claire stated: “I had paid 67 euro for extra luggage but the lady at the check-out pointed to my son’s bag and said you are not taking that on board as it’s not priority luggage.

“When I tried explaining that to the lady, that I needed Leyton’s bag she said “no” and became really aggressive.

“I proceeded to explain that my son, who was wearing his disability necklace, that it had his iPad, phone and sensory toys in the bag and we needed them for the five-hour journey to keep him entertained.”

“She said if we didn’t go now she was throwing us off the plane and phoning the police. My son was having a meltdown begging to go home.

“We weren’t even allowed to take out any of the items for the flight.

“He then started to pick holes in his arm on the plane as this is what he does without his sensory toys. We didn’t have his iPad to watch with his ear phones something, as noise really affects him.

“Even worse when we got back to Manchester the bag was not there they have now lost the bag and all my son’s belongings, my holiday photos and son’s birthday things that were in his bag.”

Leyton can be heard crying in a video that Claire has released during the family’s ordeal of trying to board.

Claire who is due to start cancer treatment wanted to have what she deems could be her last family holiday together, feels now the holiday has been ruined by the event.

Ryanair has claimed there has been no formal complaint by the family regarding the incident and no special assistance request had been forwarded previous to the departure.

However, the family say they have provided the complaint but have had no response yet.

The news come shortly after a mother claimed that the airline allegedly “refused” to let her 15-year-old autistic son, Leo, fly home and “wanted to charge to take his doll on board”.

Ryanair denied these claims and said: “these two passengers never arrived at the Ryanair Boarding gate, their luggage was offloaded at the request of Alicante passport control staff, who advised Ryanair’s gate agents that they had decided not to travel”.

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